Short overview about iron ore beneficiation: a case study in recovering the iron ore from the tailing pond of the Kip-Tuoc processing plant

Abstract

Iron is a critical metal for many fields of life and industry. The iron-containing minerals are recovered from the iron run-of-mine (ROM) ore and the tailing pond (TP) of the previous processes. The minerals containing iron are hematite, magnetite, goethite, maghemite, etc. In addition, the invaluable minerals and gangue normally are quartz, kaolinite, gibbsite, pyrite, dolomite, chlorite, etc. Many methods to upgrade the iron content as well as separating the iron minerals and gangue are applied. Those technologies are magnetic separation, gravity separation, flotation, chemical separation, thermal beneficiation, or even the application of biotechnology. In Vietnam, there are many technological research projects on iron ore beneficiation and processing. The main technologies are washing and scrubbing methods, magnetizing roasting combined with a magnetic separator, spiral and magnetic separator, flotation, etc. The article shows a short review of the main methods in order to treat the type of raw material as well as some current applied technology in Vietnam. Based on the knowledge, a study to recover the iron of Kip-Tuoc tailing from the tailing pond is presented. The applied technology is the combination of a trommel screen, spiral and shaking table. The result showed that by applying the rational method and carefully controlling the operational parameters, the iron ore (from the tailing pond with 14.28% Fe) recovered up to 57.57% at the 59.49% Fe grade content. The iron content is suitable for feeding to the blast furnaces in Vietnam. Through the research results, a flowsheet for iron recovery at the tailing pond of the Kip Tuoc beneficiation plant is proposed and scaled up to industrial production's next step.